Theatres were there, and in front
there were pictures of scenes which were to be represented within; the
price of admission being twopence to one theatre, and a penny to the
other. But, small as the price of tickets was, I could not see that
anybody bought them. Behind the theatres, close to the board wall, and
perhaps serving as the general dressing-room, was a large windowed wagon,
in which I suppose the company travel and live together. Never, to my
imagination, was the mysterious glory that has surrounded theatrical
representation ever since my childhood brought down into such dingy
reality as this. The tragedy queens were the same coarse and homely
women and girls that surrounded me on the green. Some of the people had
evidently been drinking more than was good for them; but their
drunkenness was silent and stolid, with no madness in it. No ebullition
of any sort was apparent.
May 31st.--Last Sunday week, for the first time, I heard the note of the
cuckoo. "Cuck-oo--cuck-oo" it says, repeating the word twice, not in a
brilliant metallic tone, but low and flute-like, without the excessive
sweetness of the flute,--without an excess of saccharine juice in the
sound. There are said to be always two cuckoos seen together. The note
is very soft and pleasant. The larks I have not yet heard in the sky;
though it is not infrequent to hear one singing in a cage, in the streets
of Liverpool.
Brewers' draymen are allowed to drink as much of their master's beverage
as they like, and they grow very brawny and corpulent, resembling their
own horses in size, and presenting, one would suppose, perfect pictures
of physical comfort and well-being.
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